A year ago I closed the call for an anthology I was going to call Blood Red Wet Dreams.
At first the process was like the preceding anthologies that I put together.
Come up with the idea.
Post the call.
Monitor the incoming submissions downloading the documents and adding them to a master spreadsheet with the author names, story titles, word count and e-mails.
When the submission window closed, start reading the stories.
I tend to pick around the edges of the folder containing the submissions.
Sometimes I open the folder and start reading alphabetically by title.
Sometimes reverse alphabetic to avoid granting unfair preference to alphabetic order.
Sometimes I start reading smallest files to largest.
Sometimes largest to smallest.
Sometimes I just pick a story with an interesting title in case it lives up to the title.
As I read through the stories, I decide which folder they should be put in.
I copy over the folder system that I developed while working on my first anthology.
While I was reading the submissions, a disconcerting amount of them required editing right out of the gate for spelling and grammar.
If an author doesn't have a handle on their "its/it's your/you're they're/there/their" then most of the time the stories aren't superlative.
If a reader/editor has to stop and determine if the author has used the proper form in minor grammatical matters it makes it that much more difficult to evaluate a story based on the plot, style, and content of the story.
If that's the case, I'll usually make editorial notes on the first two or three pages of errors and give up on the story, send it back with my editorial comments, and tell the author to clean up the grammar and resubmit the story if they want it to be considered.
As an editor of an anthology, I prefer to help good stories get better and catch minor spelling/usage errors.
I can sympathize with a "petal/pedal" error.
One is part of a flower. One is part of a car or bicycle.
But the "its/it's your/you're they're/there/their" thing is part of the basic tool set of writing.
If I managed to get through a story without giving up on it halfway through, I either leave it in the Submissions folder or move it onto the READ - MAYBE folder.
Usually this process took me around a month until I had made my selections and notified the authors, giving them a last chance to give their story a final polish before I put together the Table Of Contents and started to put together the book interior.
After a month working on Blood Red Wet Dreams, I had put half of the submissions into the DECLINED folder.
Each month after that, I'd re-read the stories left in the Submissions folder and try to see if I could put together some sort of theme with the stories that remained.
I was looking for around fifteen solid stories that worked well together and supported the theme.
The theme was "Blood Red Wet Dreams" as in any combination of those words could be used to describe the stories and the anthology. Ideally all of them.
I was looking for stories like Marina De Van's In My Skin, or Trouble Every Day, or Let The Right One In.
If an author doesn't have a handle on their "its/it's your/you're they're/there/their" then most of the time the stories aren't superlative.
If a reader/editor has to stop and determine if the author has used the proper form in minor grammatical matters it makes it that much more difficult to evaluate a story based on the plot, style, and content of the story.
If that's the case, I'll usually make editorial notes on the first two or three pages of errors and give up on the story, send it back with my editorial comments, and tell the author to clean up the grammar and resubmit the story if they want it to be considered.
As an editor of an anthology, I prefer to help good stories get better and catch minor spelling/usage errors.
I can sympathize with a "petal/pedal" error.
One is part of a flower. One is part of a car or bicycle.
But the "its/it's your/you're they're/there/their" thing is part of the basic tool set of writing.
If I managed to get through a story without giving up on it halfway through, I either leave it in the Submissions folder or move it onto the READ - MAYBE folder.
Usually this process took me around a month until I had made my selections and notified the authors, giving them a last chance to give their story a final polish before I put together the Table Of Contents and started to put together the book interior.
After a month working on Blood Red Wet Dreams, I had put half of the submissions into the DECLINED folder.
Each month after that, I'd re-read the stories left in the Submissions folder and try to see if I could put together some sort of theme with the stories that remained.
I was looking for around fifteen solid stories that worked well together and supported the theme.
The theme was "Blood Red Wet Dreams" as in any combination of those words could be used to describe the stories and the anthology. Ideally all of them.
I was looking for stories like Marina De Van's In My Skin, or Trouble Every Day, or Let The Right One In.
Or something like one of Dexter's blood-soaked fever dreams.
There were several good stories, but only two or three managed to cover all of the bases.
Some were sexy/smutty/bloody but had weak writing or plot.
Some had a strong story, but weren't bloody.
Some used the color red as a key and had a dream in them, but weren't bloody.
Some totally disregarded the parameters of the call and didn't have blood, the color red, water, or dreams in them.
Stories from the folder of finished but as of yet unpublished stories on their computer submitted presumably hoping that the quality of the story would overcome the theme of the anthology.
I thought about contacting regular contributors of stories whose work I haven't included in an anthology yet to ask them if they could send me something that would better complement the theme of the anthology.
But with only three stories in the READ - MAYBE folder after a year of working on this anthology I've decided to call it.
I always said that if I couldn't find enough decent stories to put together an anthology, I wouldn't put out the anthology.
This is the first time this has happened.
I don't want to re-post the call because I think I'd mostly get more of the same and just make more work for myself without publishing an anthology at the end.
I could always just send the twenty remaining stories acceptance e-mails and put it together from shortest to longest and publish it
It would make a few authors happy to receive objective positive reinforcement and add another publishing credit to their resume.
But I'm concerned about the reputation of the imprint.
Whatever marginal reputation I may have earned with the previous books I've published.
I stand behind the quality of the previous books I've published or I wouldn't have published them in the first place.
I look forward to publishing books of the same quality in the future.
Thank you to all of the authors that submitted their stories for consideration.
Sorry that this one didn't end up coming together and sorry for the long wait.
If another publisher is interested in taking over the project, feel free to contact me and I'll send over all of the materials and hopefully you can put something together and find a theme where I was unable.
Scott Lefebvre
Burnt Offerings Books
http://burntofferingsbooks.blogspot.com/
burntofferingsbooks@gmail.com
There were several good stories, but only two or three managed to cover all of the bases.
Some were sexy/smutty/bloody but had weak writing or plot.
Some had a strong story, but weren't bloody.
Some used the color red as a key and had a dream in them, but weren't bloody.
Some totally disregarded the parameters of the call and didn't have blood, the color red, water, or dreams in them.
Stories from the folder of finished but as of yet unpublished stories on their computer submitted presumably hoping that the quality of the story would overcome the theme of the anthology.
I thought about contacting regular contributors of stories whose work I haven't included in an anthology yet to ask them if they could send me something that would better complement the theme of the anthology.
But with only three stories in the READ - MAYBE folder after a year of working on this anthology I've decided to call it.
I always said that if I couldn't find enough decent stories to put together an anthology, I wouldn't put out the anthology.
This is the first time this has happened.
I don't want to re-post the call because I think I'd mostly get more of the same and just make more work for myself without publishing an anthology at the end.
I could always just send the twenty remaining stories acceptance e-mails and put it together from shortest to longest and publish it
It would make a few authors happy to receive objective positive reinforcement and add another publishing credit to their resume.
But I'm concerned about the reputation of the imprint.
Whatever marginal reputation I may have earned with the previous books I've published.
I stand behind the quality of the previous books I've published or I wouldn't have published them in the first place.
I look forward to publishing books of the same quality in the future.
Thank you to all of the authors that submitted their stories for consideration.
Sorry that this one didn't end up coming together and sorry for the long wait.
If another publisher is interested in taking over the project, feel free to contact me and I'll send over all of the materials and hopefully you can put something together and find a theme where I was unable.
Scott Lefebvre
Burnt Offerings Books
http://burntofferingsbooks.blogspot.com/
burntofferingsbooks@gmail.com
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